Adobe on Monday officially announced Creative Suite 5.5, a new mid-cycle upgrade for its creative applications, bringing subscription pricing and new multi-touch iPad applications for operating Photoshop.

The Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 family marks a major change to Adobe's product release strategy for Creative Suite. Adobe said it now plans to have milestone Creative Suite product introductions at 24-month intervals and -- starting with Creative Suite 5.5 -- significant mid-cycle releases.

As part of Creative Suite 5.5, Adobe has launched a subscription-based pricing plan. Subscription Editions ensure that customers are always working with the most up-to-date versions of the software without the upfront cost of full pricing.

"Creative Suite 5.5 will drive the development of new digital experiences across devices, including all major smartphones and tablets," said Shantanu Narayen, president and chief executive officer at Adobe. "As publishers, media companies, advertisers and enterprises transform the way they develop and distribute their content, Adobe will be there to support them with technology innovations in content creation, management, measurement and distribution."

In addition, Adobe announced three new iPad applications that demonstrate the creative possibilities of using tablets to drive common Photoshop workflows -- Adobe Color Lava for Photoshop, Adobe Eazel for Photoshop and Adobe Nav for Photoshop. THese are designed to enable users to create custom swatches, paint and drive popular Photoshop tools from tablet devices.

The applications are a part of the Photoshop Touch Software Development Kit, which allows developers to create mobile and tablet applications that interact with Adobe Photoshop CS5 and Photoshop CS5 Extended software. The Photoshop Touch SDK and new scripting engine will allow Android, BlackBerry Tablet OS and iOS applications to drive and interact with Photoshop on the desktop.

"Our research shows that creatives are adopting tablets faster than any other group and we heard loud and clear that they want to use their devices to interact with Photoshop, the tool they depend on most of all," said John Loiacono, senior vice president and general manager, Digital Media Solutions, Adobe. "The apps that we announced today show some of the creative ways tablets can work with Photoshop and over the next few months Photoshops vibrant developer community is going to dazzle us with innovative apps that further integrate tablet devices into creative workflows."

Adobe Color Lava, allows creative professionals to use their fingertips to mix colors on the iPad, creating custom color swatches and themes to transfer back into Photoshop.

Adobe Eazel, which takes advantage of cutting-edge painting technology, lets digital artists create rich realistic paintings with their fingertips and introduces a new kind of interaction between "wet" and "dry" paints. These paintings can then be sent directly to Photoshop CS5 for compositing or for taking the artwork further.

Lastly, Adobe Nav increases workflow efficiency by letting users select and control Photoshop tools using the iPad as the input surface, customize the toolbar, browse and zoom in on up to 200 open Photoshop files or easily create new files.

All three applications take advantage of the iPad tablets touch screen for a truly immersive, tactile, on-the-go experience. While the first applications available are for the Apple iPad and the iOS, the Photoshop Touch SDK makes development possible on other devices, including Android and BlackBerry PlayBook.

The Adobe Color Lava, Adobe Eazel and Adobe Nav applications for Photoshop are expected to be available in early May 2011, ranging in price from US$1.99-$4.99, on the iTunes App Store.

Beyond the new tablet-centric features, Creative Suite 5.5 also includes:

Access Latest Advances in Digital Publishing

Creative Suite 5.5 Design Premium Suite builds upon Adobe's recent product innovations in digital publishing, already deployed by some of the worlds leading magazine and business publishers to create stunning digital editions for tablet devices. Using Adobe InDesign CS5.5, in combination with the integrated Folio Producer toolset, designers can add new levels of interactivity to their page layouts targeted to tablet devices.

Documents can include video, audio, panoramic views, 360-degree object rotation, pan and zoom of images, integration of HTML and HTML5 content and other interactive overlays, leading to a much more robust and engaging reading experience. Creative Suite 5.5 complements Adobe Digital Publishing Suite to support publication, sale and analysis of content on an array of tablet devices.

In just one of the innovations, the powerful Adobe Mercury Playback Engine, introduced in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5, broadens its graphics processing unit hardware support to include laptops and more supported cards, allowing users to open projects faster, get real-time feedback and work more smoothly at higher resolutions.

The new Creative Suite product lineup is headlined by Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Master Collection, which includes, in a single package, all of Adobes creative tools, such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat®, Flash Builder, Flash Catalyst, Flash Professional, Dreamweaver, Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects. These products are available separately or as components of one or more of the five Creative Suite editions. The complete Creative Suite 5 lineup includes Creative Suite 5.5 Master Collection, Creative Suite 5.5 Design Premium, Creative Suite 5.5 Web Premium, Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium and Creative Suite 5.5 Design Standard.

Pricing and Availability

Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 products are scheduled to ship within 30 days, with availability through Adobe Authorized Resellers, the Adobe Store at adobe.com/store in North America and Adobe Direct Sales. Estimated street price for the suites is expected to be US $2,599 for CS5.5 Master Collection, US $1,899 for CS5.5 Design Premium, US $1,799 for CS5.5 Web Premium, US $1,699 for CS5.5 Production Premium and US $1,299 for CS5.5 Design Standard. Upgrade pricing and volume licensing are available.

By subscribing to Creative Suite, customers can choose a one-year subscription plan for lower payments or a month-to-month subscription for greater flexibility. For more information about Subscription Editions, visit: adobe.com/go/cssubscription.

Many good ideas but it's starting to look ever more complicated if that is even possible. I can't keep up with all the Adobe products and what they do any more and I've used them since all Adobe had was PostScript. As mguy said, another company needs to come out with a professional level competitor that starts afresh with the whole concept rather than bolting more and more and more on.

If Adobe had the guts to cannibalize their own sales (often said to being the key to survival) they could do this themselves. I doubt they will ever do that and like MS clinging to Office or Kodak to silver halides they will ultimately pay the price I suspect.

From Apple ][ - to new Mac Pro I've owned them all.Long on AAPL so biased"Google doesn't sell you anything, Google just sells you!"

I applaud Adobe for not letting its spat with Apple over Flash stop it developing for the Mac platform. That's a good move. Apps on iPad from Adobe will be a natural.

And InDesign is a really beautiful piece of work, which for me has become the gold standard for my interest in book layout.

BUT... but... the product portfolio remains utterly confusing.. you need to buy so many bits to do anything useful.. Photoshop for your imaging work except you can't draw complex shapes so now you need Illustrator too, Oh! and animation? You need Flash. Or is it Fireworks?? On and on it goes. It's all too confusing, and that's without even thinking about what all this would cost. For the average guy, kitting yourself up with Adobe products to be able to do a range of tasks is simply too damn expensive.

So what do the marketing masterminds come up with to deal with this? These geniuses go for subscription pricing. Great idea! I'm on for that. Hang on though, what's the cost going to be? Well, wouldn't you know it, these guys just can't get off the goose that laid their golden eggs! They want you to rent at rates so you'll shell out the entire normal retail price in a little over a year!!??!!

Talk about dumb. Talk about greedy. This is a non-starter in my view. Now if they put a rental price so that you paid the purchase price over, say 3 or 4 years even, NOW you might have an attractive model.

They are just shooting themselves in the foot. There's past experience to look at in this regard. Apple's Aperture at $79 is a great selection over Adobe's Lightroom at around $300. And of course Apple's Final Cut has knocked out Premiere, on price, functionality and performance. Pixelmator at $30 does a VERY serviceable job at replacing quite a bit of Photoshop's capability at $600.

On their current pricing model my belief is Adobe is simply building up pressure for competitors to come eat their lunch.

Whatever company releases a *real* competitor to Photoshop is going to make a lot of money.

I bought Pixelmator, which certainly does the Photoshop basics rather well, and in addition it has some neat facilities that it can do very easily which I was just never able to grasp in the much more complex Photoshop. Pixelmator is still a work in progress and bugs are annoyingly still to be found, BUT at $30 it has to be considered a brilliant buy, in my view. I've done some spectacular work I would not even know how to start in Photoshop, so I'm a happy camper.

i sure hope there's an upgrade price for existing users, because $1140 for the CSP is a shit-load of money when, in the past, i'd pay $660 and change for an entire upgrade.

serious fail as far as i'm concerned.

and, to add insult to injury, they probably haven't even fixed bugs in their current suite.

No kidding. A Photoshop upgrade sets you back $199 and the initial purchase would be $699.

So even if one didn't already own a copy, if one bought the program and then upgraded annually, the total cost for the first three years would be $1,097 compared to subscribing for three years costing $1,260. If instead of upgrading annually, you did it every two years, the savings would be even more dramatic.

Surely there has been some sort of misunderstanding because I can't believe that Adobe is offering a subscription model that is substantially more expensive than owning the software outright. Then again, this is Adobe we're talking about.

I suppose if you just needed the software for a few months or were starting a business and didn't know if it would last, there could be some logic in a subscription but how many of us fall into that category. I suspect Adobe will have a hard time convincing anyone to sign up for the subscription if we are talking $35 a month for Photoshop.

Adobe comes out with 2 iPad only apps, I got a feeling that there is something up with the Adobe/Apple. Like Flash on the iPad 2 and iPhone 5. Don't beat me up, I'm wildly speculating here.

But better HTML 5 tools will definitely be a welcome addition. We have a site contract with Adobe so we get this update for free. Our interactive creatives and developers will certainly make use of these tools.

I agree with the previous posts and have felt this way for a long time -- Adobe's products have gotten far too complicated and expensive.

Way over-engineered: when I try to explain to someone trying to learn Photoshop or other program in the Suite that in order to get a simple menu to perform a task you have to first find a tiny little area of a drop-down box that is perhaps only about 5 pixels in width, they look at me like I'm crazy. It's sort of like the "Where's Waldo?" of the software world.

I had hoped that Apple's Pages layout ability would develop color management, and if it did, it could replace 80 or 90% of basic layout tasks for most folks. Unfortunately they haven't even come out with Pages '11 yet.

But... Adobe won't continue on this path successfully forever. The comments here are spot-on -- it leaves the door wide open for someone to re-think how to accomplish these tasks and to make it available for 1/4 the price. Sales volumes would be huge.

Adobe comes out with 2 iPad only apps, I got a feeling that there is something up with the Adobe/Apple. Like Flash on the iPad 2 and iPhone 5. Don't beat me up, I'm wildly speculating here.

But better HTML 5 tools will definitely be a welcome addition. We have a site contract with Adobe so we get this update for free. Our interactive creatives and developers will certainly make use of these tools.

I never got that impression. Adobe is just trying to make money here and the iPad will have an installed base of 50-70 million by the end of this year. Note that Adobe has also announced or released (I forget which) a few HTML5 authoring convert/export tools so they might have finally seen the light.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

Many good ideas but it's starting to look ever more complicated if that is even possible. I can't keep up with all the Adobe products and what they do any more and I've used them since all Adobe had was PostScript. As mguy said, another company needs to come out with a professional level competitor that starts afresh with the whole concept rather than bolting more and more and more on.

If Adobe had the guts to cannibalize their own sales (often said to being the key to survival) they could do this themselves. I doubt they will ever do that and like MS clinging to Office or Kodak to silver halides they will ultimately pay the price I suspect.

Pixelmator has been out for quite some time but has failed to create much of a following among professionals. I bought it and it works fine but I much prefer Photoshop. I realize that PS is complicated but I've been using it everyday since version 1 so I never really had to deal with the learning curve.

Overall I like the announcement. It looks like Adobe took Steve's "lazy" remark personally as It appears they have been rather busy lately. I'm looking forward to the new HTML5 tools.

Here's to sticking with CS3 for another 4 years! Terrible value proposition for the mid-market folks like myself that appreciate the value of the proper software (mainly Illustrator and InDesign), but really see limited value from most of these upgrades.

BTW, the term "subscription" is used like Autodesk; your subscription gives you free updates while you keep it active; if you stop subscribing, you have to buy the full version the next time.

No kidding. A Photoshop upgrade sets you back $199 and the initial purchase would be $699.

So even if one didn't already own a copy, if one bought the program and then upgraded annually, the total cost for the first three years would be $1,097 compared to subscribing for three years costing $1,260. If instead of upgrading annually, you did it every two years, the savings would be even more dramatic.

I didn't get the impression that you couldn't still buy it. You don't have to use the subscriptions. People who complain about the price of Photoshop are not professional users. You can make back the cost of the whole suite in just two or three projects. If you think CS is expensive take a look at AutoCad subscriptions. Or just go pirate it like you usually do.

i rarely use photoshop now. nearly all my post processing needs are accomplished in either aperture or lightroom. the only feature that i miss seeing in both applications is perspective crop. this feature is so helpful when i take pictures of my paintings, because no matter how much fuss i put into making sure that the x, y, and z plains are level (called keystone?), the final is always off by a little but still noticeable. i wish perspective crop would find its way into aperture and lightroom, and photoshop app for the ipad and iphone.

anyway, i think $35 per month is a bit much. i think the chances of getting more subscriptions and more income at $5 per month is greater than the 35-dollar-per-month plan. perhaps the following plans would work better for most users and adobe: $5 per month granting basic feature access, and $35 per month granting "professional" access. perspective crop should be included in the basic feature access.

ps: since adobe's creative suite has become so large (big gigabytes) and "cluttered" with features, it could not fit in Apple App store to make an easy sale, perhaps adobe should redesign their collection. for example, they could create a basic photoshop app to sell through the app store. if a user finds that he or she needs another set of features, he or she has the option to purchase the additional module for X-dollars.

Back when the iPad was first released I imagined it being used as an extension to desktop apps in a more meaningful way than has been done up until now. Adobe creating a Photoshop specifically for this type of interaction is awesome and something I expected from Apple in a more widely available fashion. Adobe beat Apple to the punch here.

As for pricing, the "rental" thing is a fine alternative. There have been times where it could have helped me out. I don't use that many Adobe programs and don't need most of the newer features, but if I can use a couple of the newer features for a month for a price like offered I can see it useful. It's always going to be more cost effective to buy it outright IF you will be using it consistently and will be using all the apps in a suite, for instance.

I'm siding with Adobe getting woken up out of a little slumber when Apple outright attacked Adobe's handling of Flash and slow uptake on the mobile space. Adobe is gaining my respect in its reaction. Let's see Flash transition 100% to a creation tool for multimedia via the tech formerly known as HTML 5. That will be something. Going to be rough going as the standards settle, however.

Overall, very cool progress on Adobe's part and I'm no Adobe apologist.

Here's to sticking with CS3 for another 4 years! Terrible value proposition for the mid-market folks like myself that appreciate the value of the proper software (mainly Illustrator and InDesign), but really see limited value from most of these upgrades.

BTW, the term "subscription" is used like Autodesk; your subscription gives you free updates while you keep it active; if you stop subscribing, you have to buy the full version the next time.

You use an individual Creative Suite tool, like Photoshop, and would like access to everything offered by a Creative Suite edition, such as Design Premium, at an affordable monthly cost

You haven’t upgraded your software in years and want to move up to the current version at an affordable monthly cost

You have never used Creative Suite software and want an alternative way to try it for the first time

Also, the month-to-month plan is a terrific option if you work on a freelance basis or are a small business owner and have only an occasional need for Creative Suite software, or want to move your staff to Creative Suite with a smaller initial financial outlay.

No matter how they spin it, this is just an attempt to get more money. Subscription=need to be online=won't be able to add the old 'activate.adobe.com' entry to your hosts file anymore.

Adobe has to be out their mother***** minds!!!
The high end suite, if you do the subscription is $130.00 a month. And since a new upgrade isn't available for two years your month by month for two years is $3096.00!!! Kiss my a**!!!!

Adobe has to be out their mother***** minds!!!
The high end suite, if you do the subscription is $130.00 a month. And since a new upgrade isn't available for two years your month by month for two years is $3096.00!!! Kiss my a**!!!!

If you are not making more than $5 a day that you can charge back to your clients, you shouldn't be commenting.

Obviously, you are not a professional designer, i.e., one that makes a living or charges for doing so, or you are so bad, nobody is really interested in your services.

Adobe's suites were never intended for the likes of you. This concept of unconditional entitlement because I can blog or dis at my hearts content is ludicrous.

Disclaimer: Former owner of an Advertising Agency/Graphic Design Studio/Print and Electronic Production House. Tons of Macs and software from Aldus, Quark, Microsoft and Adobe. Whatever was needed to get the best out of my creative/production staff cost effectively. My accountant wasn't too pleased. However, he loved the house, pool and boat that I made it possible for him to have.

I didn't get the impression that you couldn't still buy it. You don't have to use the subscriptions. People who complain about the price of Photoshop are not professional users. You can make back the cost of the whole suite in just two or three projects. If you think CS is expensive take a look at AutoCad subscriptions. Or just go pirate it like you usually do.

Never said it's too expensive to purchase or that you can't purchase it. What is too expensive is paying more than $400 a year to retain a subscription for Photoshop alone, never mind the entire suite.

I have never pirated software and never will. Adobe has received a lot of money from me over the years and will no doubt make more in the years ahead. That would not have happened if I thought their product not worth the cost. Yet is it reasonable to pay a lot more for a subscription than to own a product outright?

If doing this makes sense for some customers in some circumstances, then it's another alternative. Hard to imagine, though, that there would be a downside to simply buying the product, as we have all these years, updating from time to time as required.

Surely there has been some sort of misunderstanding because I can't believe that Adobe is offering a subscription model that is substantially more expensive than owning the software outright. Then again, this is Adobe we're talking about.

You know, if I could pay by the day for CS Suite (uh, days I use it, that is), i'd be all for the subscription idea. When I can get the full version for LESS, seriously - what in the world are they thinking? So instead of getting more users, they're looking to find a way to constantly bill people with longer-term commitments?

Here's to hoping that Pixelmator comes closer to the current PS (adjustment layers & layer styles) and makes Adobe consider returning to Earth.

And other comments here are spot on about complexity - why in the world are there no good shape layers in PS? Give me the ability to do an Omnigraffle/Illustrator type of vector layers, apply effects to those, and mix with pixel/handdrawn. What's with the strange split of functionality?

I end up firing up OmniGraffle if I need more than a line or 2, then copy/pasting the design as a vector from there - really, Adobe? You're the best out there???

I suspect that tomorrows rumored announcement of the new Final Cut Studio (whatever) replacement is going to revise the way large app suites are bundled, packaged, sold and distributed -- in addition to all that "jaw-dropping" changes jazz!

Here's what I've been reading:

1) the "package" will be redesigned from the top down and rewritten from the bottom up
2) special attention will be given to how components "play well together" as well as play independently
3) features will be packaged in modular components structure -- rather than bolted onto a whole humongous program
4) the main apps will be small-sized with basic components and sold for a very low price.
5) additional components, also small-sized and low-priced can be added incrementally
6) all will be sold, distributed and maintained through the Mac App store.
7) apps and components will be integrated in such a way that any or all can run concurrently on one or more local, remote and cloud machines.

We may see the rewritten FCS packaged and sold similar to iWork. Instead of a $1,000 FCS "package" you'll be able to buy the individual apps as needed, for, say, $100-$200 -- then buy additional capability as you go.

All components will have a common UI and data formats. They can run standalone.

The main app will recognize the presence of the component apps and transparently incorporate their capability into the main app -- you won't need to send and return from FC to Motion, Color, etc. -- they'll just "be there" in FC (though running as another task).

This "packaging" would also permit running some components on iOS independently, as well as iOS with the Mac.

In this way the iPad can add capabilities to FC that are not possible without a multitouch interface.

I think Adobe is very much on the right track as to the last point -- the iPad can enhance and expand the capabilities of the mothership (as well as being a participating component).

Simply stated: If Adobe exploits this, I can see every Windows-only Photoshop installation buying iPads to get these capabilities (Of course, Mac installs go without saying).

"Swift generally gets you to the right way much quicker." - auxio -

"The perfect [birth]day -- A little playtime, a good poop, and a long nap." - Tomato Greeting Cards -

Adobe comes out with 2 iPad only apps, I got a feeling that there is something up with the Adobe/Apple. Like Flash on the iPad 2 and iPhone 5. Don't beat me up, I'm wildly speculating here.

But better HTML 5 tools will definitely be a welcome addition. We have a site contract with Adobe so we get this update for free. Our interactive creatives and developers will certainly make use of these tools.

I don't think these are iPad only-- the product video and web page go out of their way to feature Xooms and Galaxy Tabs-- unless you're talking about some earlier apps?

I wish someone like Adobe could bite the bullet and actually release an iPad specific app. The idea that there's a "tablet market" that requires cross-platform apps is still largely a fiction, and you can make a better app by targeting a specific device. Of course, given the bad blood between Apple and Adobe recently, Adobe may feel obliged to pretend like their customers are in the habit of doing field work with a Xoom. Can't see how that makes good business sense, though.

They spoke of the sayings and doings of their commander, the grand duke, and told stories of his kindness and irascibility.

Never said it's too expensive to purchase or that you can't purchase it. What is too expensive is paying more than $400 a year to retain a subscription for Photoshop alone, never mind the entire suite.

I have never pirated software and never will. Adobe has received a lot of money from me over the years and will no doubt make more in the years ahead. That would not have happened if I thought their product not worth the cost. Yet is it reasonable to pay a lot more for a subscription than to own a product outright?

If doing this makes sense for some customers in some circumstances, then it's another alternative. Hard to imagine, though, that there would be a downside to simply buying the product, as we have all these years, updating from time to time as required.

Why are you so concerned? You already own the product. Simply upgrade if you want to. Why would you ever consider a Subscription service?

For those who don't already have Photoshop and have reason to want to use it, at just over a buck a day doesn't seem exorbitant to me.

By the way, there are companies and services that will finance software. At a cost of course.

When will Adobe ever release a decent version of CS? Never. Because they're not in the software business they're in the money sucking pigs business. Get along fine with CS3, Aperture 3, and Pixelmator.

Overall I like the announcement. It looks like Adobe took Steve's "lazy" remark personally as It appears they have been rather busy lately. I'm looking forward to the new HTML5 tools.

I don't think the HTML 5 tools has anything to do with Apple at all - but adobe trying to compete with Quark who has integrated iPad publishing right into Quark Express 8... Which is not a bad release.
Amazingly, Quark is becoming relevant again.

A solo freelancer could easily afford $95 a month. A lump sum purchase price maybe not. I think you get the full version for that price not the just an upgrade.

Wait, are you comparing the purchase of a house to a subscription licence for software? At the end of 30 years, you own the house... at the end of 30 years with the Adobe licensing plan, you own nothing. At least with the traditional method of buying a license, you can still use your old version of the software. With the subscription method... it disappears.

In my mind, Adobe is INCREASING the price of the software AND adding a kill switch. If they were selling it for $50 a month... you might have a compelling reason to go this way.

They could make 6 different products that do what currently 25 or who knows have many do. And it's all this way to make it seem like you get more for your money. Sucks and makes actually using the stuff more complex than it needs to be.

Wait, are you comparing the purchase of a house to a subscription licence for software? At the end of 30 years, you own the house... at the end of 30 years with the Adobe licensing plan, you own nothing. At least with the traditional method of buying a license, you can still use your old version of the software. With the subscription method... it disappears.

In my mind, Adobe is INCREASING the price of the software AND adding a kill switch. If they were selling it for $50 a month... you might have a compelling reason to go this way.

Some people buy and others rent

And why can't you still use your old version of the software? Subscribing to the new software does not stop you or negate your use of something you already own.

When will Adobe ever release a decent version of CS? Never. Because they're not in the software business they're in the money sucking pigs business. Get along fine with CS3, Aperture 3, and Pixelmator.

Yup. While some of their technological advances like content aware fill are great, they have done NOTHING to improve the user experience. Adobe's software is as non-native as it can be. It installs in folders in Applications, it uses custom installers on top of the regular package installers (why?!), it uses custom updaters for no real reason.

It's still riddled with bugs. Sometimes Expose causes every little piece of the UI to become its own window, the UI font rendering is just awful (thank Flash for that), there's at least a dozen different sliders, redundant windows, obscure alerts...it's just shit piled on top of more shit piled on top of something that was rather good - back in the late 1990s. Not to mention that all the programs are incompatible with each other in various ways, not the least of which is UI discrepancy (just look at the horrible text controls in Illustrator vs Photoshop).

I'm sure they'll also figure a way to make European subscriptions cost about 30% more on top of VAT like they do with the current pricing.

I wish Pixelmator got some serious funding and more people to work on it because it's exactly what Photoshop should be on the Mac, just doesn't have the same amount of features yet. I hope they release a vector version someday too.

Thank god I'm a web developer and not a graphic designer so I don't have to use Adobe's crapware daily. No, I won't touch Dreamweaver, ever.

I feel like I just bought my CS5 upgrade. Not sure if I want to spend another $299 for this... the only new feature I see that I want is InDesign being able to disable Frame Edge Highlighting. This feature was listed as the number 1 complaint at InDesignSecrets.com

There are still bugs in Illustrator and Photoshop. I've even been in contact directly with Adobe about several bugs I discovered in Photoshop. Hopefully CS5 will still get one last update.